The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole

I purchased the newest Dark Tower book Thursday night and started reading it Friday. I finished it Sunday night. It was fantastic. I could not put it down. I was afraid about reading a new story set in this world with those characters. My biggest fear was that it would let me down or it would not fit well with the main story.

Fortunately, this book makes sense. It is supposed to go between books four and five, and honestly, it is perfect. The biggest problem I had in the original series was the way that after Wizard and Glass, there seemed to be a shift in the way Jake behaved. He was a boy and then in Wolves of the Calla he seemed to have grown up a bit and became a gunslinger. It just seemed like such a huge shift (also in the world they ended up in, they went back to that world, yet into a whole new place).

The book starts out with the ka-tet traveling to a river and taking a ferry across. The ferryman tells them that there is a starkblast coming and they need to find shelter. He even tells them about Andy the Robot.

As they take shelter from the super-storm, Roland tells them a story about his follow-up adventure after killing his mother. He and Jamie DeCurry must investigate a skin-man in a town called Debaria. Once inside the story, Roland then tells another story to a young boy named Bill. This story is the majority of the book, which is about a boy who goes on a quest to save his mother. The structure reminded me of the first book in the series, The Gunslinger, with the different layers of stories.

For fans of the series, it is actually sad when you see Jack, Eddie, Susannah, and Oy again. They were part of our lives for so many years and I had no idea how much I actually missed them. Especially Jake and Oy.

I highly suggest picking it up. You will not be disappointed. Below are some of the images from the special edition book (which I did not buy).

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12 thoughts on “The Dark Tower: The Wind Through the Keyhole”

I can’t get into the dark tower series…I’ve read the first 2 books and it felt like it took me forever. I do not feel…enthralled…i guess is the word…with the book. It isn’t pulling me in and it is very slow. I just do not like it right now. And by right now, I mean I haven’t read any part of this series in over a year.

I’ve been bouncing all over the place with my reading lately. I start a series and then I move on to another and start that and so forth. I just finished James Patterson’s first book of a series’ name I cannot recall; “Witch and Wizard”. The second is call “The Gift”. I keep bouncing back to Christopher Moore books, which absolutely crack me up. I finished reading the God of War novel, which I was not all that impressed with and I plan on starting the Game of Thrones series. I also have to catch up on my R.A Salvatore Drizzt series’, and hope to in the near future start up “Twelve” by Jasper Kent. More vampires, but in 1812 russia where he uses the French invasion and occupancy of Moscow as his backdrop, though it apparently doesn’t have much to do with the story line.

The first two books are effectively preludes to the main story. I don’t think it really kicks in till Vol 3 ‘The Waste Lands’. Vol 4, ‘Wizard & Glass’ is the best, not only in the series, but is also one of King’s greatest works in my mind. Stick with it.

Hmm, there are a few subtle references to 19, but most of the stuff is just like Roland’s tale about going to Mejis in Wizard and Glass. There are a few North Central Positronics references though, but they were in books 3/4…

The Mejis stuff & the original Gunslinger (minus the “19” updates) are my favorite parts of the series, so I’ll have to get this. I recently picked up Game of Thrones and a combo Gaiman hardcover with Anansi Boys and American Gods, so I should probably read those first, though.

Started reading last night and finished at 8 am. What an amazing journey! (The Who!). One of the greatest King stories i’ve read! I love the ‘Lord of the Flies’ reference (the boar’s head on a stake), and the Throcken – the bumblers – added a texture and color to the narrative that we constant readers have come to love <3